The Fox and the Hen: A Limerick Diptych (and Audio Narration)

April 23, 2026

The Fox and the Hen: A Limerick Diptych (and Audio Narration)

The Fox and the Hen, written for Esther Chilton’s Laughing Along With a Limerick, where the prompt word is box. I wrote a diptych, and I hope it gives you a chuckle.

The Fox and the Hen

A humorous ink sketch shows a cartoon fox at the mercy of furious cocks. It illustrates the following limerick:

There once was a wily old fox
who wore shoes without any socks
he was hunting a hen
when he slipped up and then
he was pecked by the hen’s brood of cocks — The Fox and the Hen and the Cocks | Digital ink and wash©️Lesley Scoble

A humorous ink sketch shows a cartoon fox asleep in a box. He is dreaming of the hen. It illustrates the following limerick:
There once was a crafty old fox
who liked to sleep all day in a box
he’d snore loudly and then
dreaming dreams of the hen
he’d jump out like a jack-in-the-box — The Fox in the Box | Digital pencil©️Lesley Scoble

A humorous ink sketch shows a cartoon fox jumping out of a box. It illustrates the final line in the following limerick:

There once was a crafty old fox
who liked to sleep all day in a box
he’d snore loudly and then
dreaming dreams of the hen
he’d jump out like a jack-in-the-box — Fox Jack-in-the-Box | Digital pencil©️Lesley Scoble

The Fox and The Hen — Audio Narration

The Fox and The Hen, written and narrated by Lesley Scoble

Here are the limericks in text form, for anyone who can’t view the images.

There once was a wily old fox
who wore shoes without any socks
he was hunting a hen
when he slipped up and then
he was pecked by the hen’s brood of cocks

There once was a crafty old fox
who liked to sleep all day in a box
he’d snore loudly and then
dreaming dreams of the hen
he’d jump out like a jack-in-the-box


_{—Lesley Scoble, April 2026}

Thank you, Esther, for the inspiration.